Unwinding the tangle of adolescent pregnancy and socio-economic functioning: leveraging administrative data from Manitoba, Canada

dc.contributor.authorJakubowski, Aleksandra
dc.contributor.authorRoos, Leslie L.
dc.contributor.authorWall-Wieler, Elizabeth
dc.date.accessioned2023-05-23T20:43:08Z
dc.date.available2023-05-23T20:43:08Z
dc.date.issued2023-03-04
dc.date.updated2023-04-04T17:42:07Z
dc.description.abstractAbstract Background Understanding the relationship between adolescent pregnancy and adult education and employment outcomes is complicated due to the endogeneity of fertility behaviors and socio-economic functioning. Studies exploring adolescent pregnancy have often relied on limited data to measure adolescent pregnancy (i.e. birth during adolescence or self-reports) and lack access to objective measures of school performance during childhood. Methods We use rich administrative data from Manitoba, Canada, to assess women’s functioning during childhood (including pre-pregnancy academic performance), fertility behaviors during adolescence (live birth, abortion, pregnancy loss, or no history of pregnancy), and adult outcomes of high school completion and receipt of income assistance. This rich set of covariates allows calculating propensity score weights to help adjust for characteristics possibly predictive of adolescent pregnancy. We also explore which risk factors are associated with the study outcomes. Results We assessed a cohort of 65,732 women, of whom 93.5% had no teen pregnancy, 3.8% had a live birth, 2.6% had abortion, and < 1% had a pregnancy loss. Women with a history of adolescent pregnancy were less likely to complete high school regardless of the outcome of that pregnancy. The probability of dropping out of high school was 7.5% for women with no history of adolescent pregnancy; after adjusting for individual, household, and neighborhood characteristics, the probability of dropping out of high school was 14.2 percentage points (pp) higher (95% CI 12.0-16.5) for women with live birth, 7.6 pp. higher (95% CI 1.5-13.7) for women with a pregnancy loss, and 6.9 pp. higher (95% CI 5.2-8.6) for women who had abortion. They key risk factors for never completing high school are poor or average school performance in 9th grade. Women who had a live births during adolescence were much more likely to receive income assistance than any other group in the sample. Aside from poor school performance, growing up in poor households and in poor neighborhoods were also highly predictive of receiving income assistance during adulthood. Discussion The administrative data used in this study enabled us to assess the relationship between adolescent pregnancy and adult outcomes after controlling for a rich set of individual-, household-, and neighborhood-level characteristics. Adolescent pregnancy was associated with higher risk of never completing high school regardless of the pregnancy outcome. Receipt of income assistance was significantly higher for women having a live birth, but only marginally higher for those who had a pregnancy that ended in loss or termination, underlining the harsh economic consequences of caring for a child as a young mother. Our data suggest that interventions targeting young women with poor or average school marks may be especially effective public policy priorities.en_US
dc.identifier.citationBMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. 2023 Mar 04;23(1):140
dc.identifier.citationBMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. 2023 Mar 04;23(1):140
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-023-05443-6
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1993/37350
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.language.rfc3066en
dc.publisherBioMed Central (BMC)en_US
dc.rightsopen accessen_US
dc.rights.holderThe Author(s)
dc.subjectadolescent pregnancyen_US
dc.subjecthigh school graduationen_US
dc.subjectincome assistanceen_US
dc.subjectpopulation-based cohorten_US
dc.titleUnwinding the tangle of adolescent pregnancy and socio-economic functioning: leveraging administrative data from Manitoba, Canadaen_US
dc.typejournal articleen_US
local.author.affiliationRady Faculty of Health Sciences::Max Rady College of Medicine::Department of Community Health Sciencesen_US
oaire.citation.issue1en_US
oaire.citation.startPage140en_US
oaire.citation.titleBMC Pregnancy and Childbirthen_US
oaire.citation.volume23en_US
project.funder.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.13039/501100000024en_US
project.funder.nameCanadian Institutes of Health Researchen_US
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
12884_2023_Article_5443.pdf
Size:
2.25 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
license.txt
Size:
2.24 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed to upon submission
Description: